Discusses how school libraries can provide valuable services to parents and develop meaningful partnerships with new computer technology. Suggests school librarians should analyze parental resources and needs and match them with the library's mission, as well as being sensitive to possible barriers to service. (Author/LRW)

The recent demand for more accountability from public libraries has made it essential that true cost-benefit analysis be applied to their operations. The authors developed a cost-benefit analysis methodology and applied it to five large public library systems. This article describes ongoing research to modify their methodologies to make them…

Five Grand Challenges are proposed for library research: (1) Library service: Could library services be made more meaningful? (2) Library theory: Who knew what when? (3) Library design: Have digital libraries been designed backwards? (4) Library values: How neutral can libraries be? (5) Library communities: How do communities differ? (AEF)

Discusses a user satisfaction survey distributed to patrons of the M.M. Bennett Library at St. Petersburg College (Florida). Reports that satisfaction with reference assistance has varied, although there has been an improvement in the rating of library instructions since this question was first posed in 1999. Suggests that paper surveys are easier…

Discusses school library media specialists and library programs and the need to promote them to make them more visible. Focuses on the need for advocacy and suggests steps to take, including collaboration with teachers, principals, and other media specialists; and includes resources for advocacy, starting with the AASL (American Association of…

Examines academic library service to labor groups, particularly in the area of Internet training. Results of an informal survey of 53 academic libraries in schools with labor study programs in the United States and Canada indicate that few provide direct services to labor unions, and provides an example of one that does at Cornell University.…

Describes the Teen Center at the Schaumburg Township District Library (Illinois) that was built with a sports theme. Highlights include the physical environment; the library collection, mainly recreational, that includes music CDs; the young adult population and community; hours of operation; staffing; youth participation and programs; and the…

Summarizes reasons for evaluating library literacy programs and the role of evaluation in the planning process. What to measure is discussed, and sample measures for library collections, support services, and direct instruction are listed. Issues to be considered in developing program objectives and evaluation strategies are also addressed. (10…

Discussion of new developments in library/information services and the influences of technological and societal factors focuses on funding considerations. Topics discussed include budget preparation, allocation, monitoring, and evaluation; and alternative sources of funding, including leveraging, grants, fundraising and development, fees and…

The innovative designs of three libraries are described: the Tempe (Arizona) Public Library, which emphasizes services for children and students; an underground library at Park College, Missouri; and a public library located in the Vancouver (Washington) Mall. The fourth article describes the work going on to restore the Los Angeles (California)…

Describes an examination of the information seeking behavior of humanists in a small, interdisciplinary group. The findings include when and how these scholars employ online databases, reference librarians, archivists, special collections librarians, formal bibliographies, and other information sources. Further research is suggested and the…

Describes the development and current status of the Explorers Club, and the collections and services of the club library. The collections include the arctic library of Admiral Robert Peary, rare books and records, paintings, and memorabilia. The discussion covers research services offered by the library and preservation of the collections. (CLB)

Reviews the factors that tend to limit youth services budgets in public libraries, and discusses the need to collect relevant data on the use of libraries by children and adolescents to justify financial support of youth services. Strategies for collecting such data are outlined and appropriate resource allocation is discussed. (CLB)

Discusses the need for the library profession to learn not only how to identify information needs, but also to create new services and delivery patterns around them. The existing literature on information needs and information seeking behavior is briefly reviewed, and a research agenda for the 1990s is summarized. (51 references) (Author/CLB)

Describes the Term Paper Clinic (TPC), a project in which students in a library reference class at the University of British Columbia offered reference assistance to other students. Appendixes include approaches and sources for the TPC search; instructions for the TPC search; a student library research guide; a report on user evaluations; and the…